Odisha: Man posing as Maoist tries to force firm to hike salary, held

JHARSUGUDA: Judhistir Padhan had planned his strategy well. The 36-year-old fitter at a private company in Jharsuguda was unhappy with the salary he was getting. So he thought to teach the higher authorities a lesson.
With Maoists still instilling fear among the people, Judhistir decided to pose as a rebel and threaten the management to pay him and his colleagues better salaries. But he erred in execution, resulting in him getting arrested by Badmal police on Thursday.
Judhistir’s grouse was that locals were being deprived of better salary while those from outside western Odisha were getting more. A resident of Bijepur in Bargarh district, he earned Rs 22,000 per month. He apparently tried to talk to the management for a raise several times. But when no one listened, he hatched upon a plan to scare the company officers into getting them to pay more.
On Juy 29, Abutar Khan, site in-charge of the company, received a letter in his office address. The registered letter, which was sent by a western Odisha Maoists’ outfit and signed by its purported chief D C Mugun, threatened to kill him if better remuneration was not provided to employees from the region. The letter named eight workers who the company needed to pay better salaries. He also received repeated threat calls and messages from a mobile phone number.
A similar letter was sent to human resources department head Ranjit Mohapatra, demanding better financial benefits for the employees from western Odisha. This letter was sent in the name of Western Odisha Lal Bahini. Abutar recently approached the police. During the investigation, what caught the police’s attention was the names of the eight workers mentioned in the letter.
‘Firm did nothike salary despite repeated appeals’
The police started tracking their mobile phone numbers and they zeroed in on Judhistir. “Based on the complaint by one Abutar Khan regarding threats given by a Maoist, Badmal police arrested an employee Judhistir Padhan of Bijepur, working in the same private company. Police have seized a threatening letter along with a phone from which he had made the threat calls,” Jharsuguda SP Bikash Das said.
Speaking to the media, Yudhistir said, “I have been working in the company for 12 years. Those from outside the region were getting a higher salary compared to the locals. I had asked for a hike several times but no one listened. I thought that if I could scare the management, then we would get better salaries.”
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